Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers War 1914-1918

The true and amazing story of Birdsong has never been fully told - until now! This highly illustrated, definitive, important book is the first full account of the British and German mine warfare of the Ypres Salient combining personal testimonies of the tunnellers themselves with details of the workings, giving the reader a new insight into this most secret of all Great War battles and incorporating a host of previously unpublished archive photographs. The underground war had many hazards to overcome - bad, waterlogged ground; camouflets; gas; and the enemy themselves, in hand-to-hand conflict. Overcoming these horrendous difficulties became an obsession in a complex war of silence, tension, claustrophobia and engineering ingenuity. Theirs was a secret, private and deadly war of blindfold cat and mouse, a round-the-clock kill or be killed nightmare. For the first time, this extraordinary hidden world is explored, explained and revealed in full colour. Peter Barton is a filmmaker and military historian specialising in the underground war. Peter Doyle is a geologist and expert on the role of terrain in World War I. Johan Vandewalle is an archaeologist, photographer and the foremost explorer of the forgotten tunnels of Flanders.